This screen is accessed from the back-end Joomla! administrator panel. It is used to manage contact categories in your Joomla! website.

How to Access

Select Components → Contacts → Categories from the drop-down menu of the Joomla! Administrator Panel. You can also select the 'Categories' menu link from the Contact Manager: Contacts screen.

Description

The Contact Category Manager is where you can edit existing Contact Categories and create new ones. Note that Contact Categories are separate from other Categories, such as for Articles, Banners, News Feeds, and Web Links. From this screen, you can also navigate to the Contact Manager: Contacts screen.

Screenshot

Column Headers

Click on the column heading to sort the list by that column's value.

Checkbox. Check this box to select one or more items. To select all items, check the box in the column heading. After one or more boxes are checked, click a toolbar button to take an action on the selected item or items. Many toolbar actions, such as Publish and Unpublish, can work with multiple items. Others, such as Edit, only work on one item at a time. If multiple items are checked and you press Edit, the first item will be opened for editing.

Title. The name of the item. For a Menu Item, the Title will display in the Menu. For an Article or Category, the Title may optionally be displayed on the web page. This entry is required. You can open the item for editing by clicking on the Title.

Status. (Published/Unpublished/Archived/Trashed) The published status of the item.

Ordering. The order in which to display items. You can sort the list by order number by clicking on the Ordering label in the column heading. If the list is sorted by this column, you can change the order by clicking the arrows or by entering the sequential order and clicking the 'Save Order' icon. This is shown in the screen below.

Note that the ordering is only defined within a single category. For this reason, it is easier to re-order the list if you use the Category filter to select one category.

Access. The viewing level access for this item.

Language. Item language.

ID. This is a unique identification number for this item assigned automatically by Joomla!. It is used to identify the item internally, and you cannot change this number. When creating a new item, this field displays 0 until you save the new entry, at which point a new ID is assigned to it.

List Filters

Filter by Partial Title or ID

Filter by Partial Title or ID. In the upper left is a filter field and two buttons, as shown below.

To filter by partial title, enter part of the title and click Search.

To filter by ID number, enter "id:xx", where "xx" is the ID number (for example, "id:9").

Click Clear to clear the Filter field and restore the list to its unfiltered state.

Filter by Max Levels, State, Access or Language

In the upper right area, above the column headings, there are four drop-down boxes as shown below:

Only items matching the selected Max Levels, State, Access and/or Language will display in the list.

Filter by Max Levels (Category Level). Lets you show only items whose category is at or above the specified level in the category hierarchy.

- Select Max Levels -: Show all items regardless of level of their assigned category.

1: Only show items whose category is at the top level in the category hierarchy (in other words, with categories whose parent category is "- No Parent -".)

2-10: Only show items whose category is in the top 2-10 levels in the category hierarchy.

Filter by Published Status. Lets you show only items with the selected published status.

- Select Status -: Shows items that are Published and Unpublished. Does not show items that are Trashed or Archived.

Published: Shows only items that are Published.

Unpublished: Shows only items that are Unpublished.

Archived: Shows only items that are Archived.

Trashed: Shows only items that are Trashed. Important Note: To permanently delete items:

Change the status of the items to Trashed.

Change the Status filter to Trashed. At this point the trashed items will show and an icon called "Empty trash" will show in the toolbar.

Select the desired trashed items and click on "Empty Trash" in the toolbar. The items will be permanently deleted.

All: Shows all items regardless of published status.

Filter by Viewing Access Level. Lets you show only items that have a specified viewing access level. The list box will show the access levels defined for your site, similar to the example below.

- Select Access -: Show items with any viewing access level.

<your access level>: Show items only with this viewing access level.

Filter by Language. Lets you show only items that have a specific language assigned. The list box will show the languages defined for your site, similar to the example below.

- Select Language - or All: Show items for any language.

<your language>: Show items only for this language.

Page Controls. When the number of items is more than one page, you will see a page control bar as shown below.

Display #: Select the number of items to show on one page.

Start: Click to go to the first page.

Prev: Click to go to the previous page.

Page numbers: Click to go to the desired page.

Next: Click to go to the next page.

End: Click to go to the last page.

Batch Processing

Below the list of categories is the batch processing section:

Set Access Level. Use this drop-down list to select an access level.

Set Language. Use this drop-down list to select a language.

Select Category for Move/Copy. Use this drop-down list to select a category to move or copy the selected categories to. Use the radio button to select either a move or copy operation.

Toolbar

At the top right you will see the toolbar:

The functions are:

New. Opens the editing screen to create a new contact category.

Edit. Opens the editing screen for the selected contact category. If more than one contact category is selected (where applicable), only the first contact category will be opened. The editing screen can also be opened by clicking on the Title or Name of the contact category.

Publish. Makes the selected contact categories available to visitors to your website.

Archive. Changes the status of the selected contact categories to indicate that they are archived. Archived contact categories can be moved back to the published or unpublished state by selecting "Archived" in the Select Status filter and changing the status of the contact categories to Published or Unpublished as preferred.

Check In. Checks-in the selected contact categories. Works with one or multiple contact categories selected.

Trash. Changes the status of the selected contact categories to indicate that they are trashed. Trashed contact categories can still be recovered by selecting "Trashed" in the Select Status filter and changing the status of the contact categories to Published or Unpublished as preferred. To permanently delete trashed contact categories, select "Trashed" in the Select Status filter, select the contact categories to be permanently deleted, then click the Empty Trash toolbar icon.

Rebuild. Reconstructs and refreshes the contact category table. Normally, you do not need to rebuild this table. This function is provided in case the data in the table becomes corrupted.

Options. Opens the Options window where settings such as default parameters or permissions can be edited.

Help. Opens this help screen.

Options

Click the Options button to open the Contact Manager Options window which lets you configure this component.

Buttons Common to All Tabs

Save. Saves the contact options and stays in the current screen.

Save & Close. Saves the contact options and closes the current screen.

Cancel/Close. Closes the current screen and returns to the previous screen without saving any modifications you may have made.

Contact Tab

These settings apply for single Contact unless they are changed for a specific menu item or Contact

Choose a layout. Default layout to use for articles.

Display format. (Use Global/Sliders/Tabs/Plain) Determines the style used to display sections of the contact form.

Contact Category. (Use Global/Hide/Show Without Link/Show With Link) Shows or Hides the contacts category with or without a link.

Show Contact List. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide a drop down allowing the selection of any other contact from the same category.

Name. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the name of the contact.

Position. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the position of the contact.

Email. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the email of the contact.

Street Address. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the street address of the contact.

City or Suburb. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the city or suburb of the contact.

State or County. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the State or County of the contact.

Postal Code. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the Postal/ZIP code of the contact.

Country. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the Country of the contact.

Telephone. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the telephone number of the contact.

Mobile Phone. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the mobile number of the contact.

Fax. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the fax number of the contact.

Webpage. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the Webpage of the contact.

Miscellaneous Information. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the Miscellaneous Information of the contact (note this is called Contact Information in the Contact Component).

Image. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide an image to be displayed with this item/category in the front-end.

Image. Choose the image file to use for the contact.

vCard. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide the vCard (electronic business card) link for this Contact. Note that the "Enable vCard" option in the Contact Manager - Options must be set to "Show" for this option to work correctly.

Show User Articles. (Use Global/Hide/Show) If the contact selected has a Joomla profile linked - then all the articles that user has posted will be displayed.

Show Profile. Show Profile.

Show Links. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show extra links for the contact (see the parameters below).

Link A Label. (Input Field) Label for an additional link for this contact.

Link B Label. An additional link for this contact.

Link C Label. An additional link for this contact.

Link D Label. An additional link for this contact.

Link E Label. An additional link for this contact.

Icons Tab

These settings apply for single Contact unless they are changed for a specific menu item or Contact

Settings. Choose whether to display icons, text or nothing next to the information.

Address Icon. Select the Address icon. If none selected, the default icon will be displayed.

Email Icon. Select the Email icon. If none selected, the default icon will be displayed.

Telephone Icon. Select the Telephone icon. If none selected, the default icon will be displayed.

Mobile Icon. Select the Mobile icon. If none selected, the default icon will be displayed.

Fax Icon. Select the Fax icon. If none selected, the default icon will be displayed.

Misc Icon. Select the Misc icon. If none selected, the default icon will be displayed.

Category Tab

These settings apply for Contact Category Options unless they are changed for a specific menu item.

Choose a layout. Default layout to use for the contact category.

Category Title. (Show/Hide) Show or Hide the category Title.

Category Description. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the description of the category.

Category Image. (Show/Hide) Show or hide the category image.

Subcategory Levels. (All/1-5) The number of levels of subcategories to show in the layout. Select All to show all levels in the subcategory hierarchy.

Empty Categories. (Show/Hide) Whether to hide or show the categories that contain no content items or subcategories.

Subcategories Descriptions. (Show/Hide) Whether to hide or show the category description of subcategories.

# Contacts in Category. Show or Hide the number of Contacts in category.

Categories Tab

These settings apply for Contact Categories Options unless they are changed for a specific menu item.

Top Level Category Description. (Show/Hide) Show or Hide the top category description.

Subcategory Levels. (All/1-5) The number of levels of subcategories to show in the layout. Select All to show all levels in the subcategory hierarchy.

Empty Categories. (Show/Hide) Whether to hide or show the categories that contain no content items or subcategories.

Subcategories Descriptions. (Show/Hide) Whether to hide or show the category description of subcategories.

# Contacts in Category. (Show/Hide) Show or Hide the number of Contacts in category.

List Layouts Tab

These settings apply for Contact List Options unless they are changed for a specific menu item.

Display Select: (Show/Hide) Can Show or Hide the Select dropdown listbox.

Table Headings: (Show/Hide) Can Show or Hide the headings in list layouts.

Position. Show or Hide a Position column in the list of Contacts.

Email. Show or Hide an Email column in the list of Contacts.

Phone. Show or Hide a Phone column in the list of Contacts.

Mobile. Show or Hide show a Mobile column in the list of Contacts.

Fax. Show or Hide a Fax column in the list of Contacts.

City or Suburb. Show or Hide a City or Suburb column in the list of Contacts.

State. Show or Hide a State column in the list of Contacts.

Country. Show or Hide a Country column in the list of Contacts.

Pagination: Can Show or Hide Pagination Options. Pagination allows additional content to be displayed on subsequent pages. This may be useful if your content will not easily fit on one page.

Pagination Results: Can show the number of pages of newsfeed content. This option is only viewed if the Pagination option is turned on. An example would be Page 1 of 4.

Form Tab

These settings apply for single Contact unless they are changed for a specific menu item or Contact.

Show Contact Form. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide contact form.

Send Copy to Submitter. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Show or Hide checkbox to allow copy of email to be sent to submitter.

Banned Email. Email addresses not allowed to submit information with the contact form.

Banned Subject. Subjects not allowed in contact form.

Banned Text. Text not allowed in contact form body.

Session Check. (Use Global/No/Yes) Check for the existence of session cookie. This means that users without cookies enabled will not be able to send emails.

Custom Reply. (Use Global/No/Yes) Turns off the automated reply, allowing for Plugins to handle integration with other systems.

Contact Redirect. Enter an alternative email address, where information will be sent to.

Integration Tab

These settings determine how the Contact Component will integrate with other extensions.

Show Feed Link. (Show/Hide) Show or hide a RSS feed link.

Permissions Tab

This screen allows you to set the component permissions in Joomla. This is important to consider if you have sites with many different user categories all of whom need to have different accessibilities to the component. The screenshot below describes what you should see and the text below that describes what each permission level gives the user access to:

You work on one Group at a time by opening the slider for that group. You change the permissions in the Select New Settings drop-down list boxes. The options for each value are Inherited, Allowed, or Denied. The Calculated Setting column shows you the setting in effect. It is either Not Allowed (the default), Allowed, or Denied. Note that the Calculated Setting column is not updated until you press the Save button in the toolbar. To check that the settings are what you want, press the Save button and check the Calculated Settings column.

Open the contacts component option screens (the modal window these options are in)

Access Administration Interface

Open the contacts component manger screens

Create

Create new contacts in the component

Delete

Delete existing contacts in the component

Edit

Edit existing contacts in the component

Edit State

Change an contacts state (Publish, Unpublish, Archive, and Trash) in the component.

Edit Own

Edit existing contacts in the component that the logged in user has created.

There are two very important points to understand from this screen. The first is to see how the permissions can be inherited from the parent Group. The second is to see how you can control the default permissions by Group and by Action. This provides a lot of flexibility. For example, if you wanted Shop Suppliers to be able to have the ability to create an article about their product, you could just change their Create value to "Allowed". If you wanted to not allow members of Administrator group to delete objects or change their state, you would change their permissions in these columns to Inherited (or Denied). It is also important to understand that the ability to have child groups is completely optional. It allows you to save some time when setting up new groups. However, if you like, you can set up all groups to have Public as the parent and not inherit any permissions from a parent group.

Toolbar Links

At the top left, above the Filter, you will see the following two links: